Santander's festival, founded in 1952, programmes orchestras, chamber music, opera and dance through August in the Palacio de Festivales and in historic venues across Cantabria — churches, palaces and the Magdalena peninsula, where the royal family summered before the republic.
No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.
Its August position reflects what Santander is: the Atlantic city where Madrid went to escape the heat, with a university summer school and a cultural season built for a displaced capital.
The weather is the practical variable. Cantabria in August is around twenty degrees cooler than Andalusia and considerably wetter, which is the point for the audience and a consideration for anyone expecting a Spanish summer.
PlanningA month-long August season of individual nights, several in the Palacio de Festivales.